


i don't wanna see the end begin

by writer



Category: Bleach
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2016-05-01
Packaged: 2018-06-05 18:52:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6716962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writer/pseuds/writer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a variation on episode 54. rukia reflects on the ways ichigo has changed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i don't wanna see the end begin

**Author's Note:**

> for [ichirukimonth.](http://ichirukimonth.tumblr.com) x-posted to FFn. this is honestly terrible but i can’t look at it anymore so it’s being posted. kudos is ❤︎

by the time _he_ had come she had already resigned herself to her execution, having said her final ‘goodbye’s and ‘thank you’s and put to rest her fears and worries. the captain-commander had promised her friends’ safety, after all—the fulfillment of her dying wish. she was all settled and ready for death—as ready as she could ever be for a premature death—but then _he_ arrived, all fiery eyes and bandaged skin, teeth set with determination (so much like kaien in that moment, fierce and lovely and everything she had ever wanted and more), and he awakened the little piece of hope that had refused to leave her heart, resting unbidden in her soul. before she even registered his presence, she was swept up in his arms and pulled into the warmth and security of his embrace.

“ichigo,” she said questioningly, eyes lit with wonder, scarcely able to believe he was here. but when she finally realized he was here and real and not just some figure of her after-death world, anger and panic welled up inside her, and she began to yell at him—for compromising his safety, and their friends’ safeties, for pursuing her like a total fool when she was supposed to _die here—_

the world turned upside down for a second and tears welled up unbidden in the corners of her eyes as he shifted her to one arm and painfully rubbed at her head with his bony knuckles. “what the hell,” she said indignantly, clutching at her head and looking up at him from her position where she was tucked into his side, held up by the waist like a stray cat. she straightened when she saw he wasn’t looking at her. he was looking into the distance, hair blowing with the soft breeze, looking below at the chaos in the wake of the destroyed sokyoku. 

“i said it before, and i’ll say it again,” ichigo said softly, finally shifting to look down at her. “i’ve come to save you, rukia.” she heard the determination in his voice, the sheer will that had propelled him to get here. she remembered the way he had first sprinted to protect that little boy from the clutches of the hollow as she shouted at him about sacrifice, telling her, _i won’t die for a stranger._ she looked into the set of his jaw, the eyes shining with the fierce will that _he would not lose her again,_ and she saw: in that moment, he was worlds away from the young, naive boy she had first met in that bedroom, violent in his fear and confusion when he had kicked her to the ground. she smiled, tears finally spilling over, eyes fluttering shut.

“i won’t…” she choked back her tears, refusing to allow her voice to quiver anymore than it already was. “i won’t say thank you…idiot!”

he smiled down at her, and he was like the sun.


End file.
